Synopsis:

When their South Carolina home burns to the ground, Anna Stewart’s only choice is to move with her younger brother to the wilds of a Texas ranch.

Their prospects are beginning to look better, until the rancher’s son, Jacob O’Brien, shows up with his alarmingly blue eyes to put a kink in Anna’s well-controlled plans.

When danger escalates in the form of a band of cattle thieves with deadly intent, can Anna learn to release control to God’s capable hands…and those of the blue-eyed cowboy who’s stolen her heart?

The Rancher Takes a Cook tells the story of Anna and her younger brother Edward as they try to get their lives back together after Savannah is burnt to the ground at the end of the Civil War. Though Anna’s faith in God is strong, she still struggles with trusting God to take care of her brother and their lives.

Jacob is the son of the rancher who hired Anna as their cook. He is handsome, dashing, chivalrous and loves God. He encourages Anna to let Edward grow up and be able to do things around the ranch that she considers dangerous. The one thing that really bugged me about him is that he had no intention of marrying, yet he kissed Anna on multiple occasions. While we treat kisses much more casually now, that was a very big deal then and he shouldn’t have done it.

There was a major emphasis in the book of learning to trust God. There were several scriptures that were shared that were well placed and appropriate. The way that Anna and Jacob learned to trust God more was fitting and made sense in the story.

The growing relationship between Anna and Jacob was very sweet (other than the above mentioned kisses). The story did drag a little bit in places, especially in the end. The trip to San Antonio could have been left out and the story would have felt complete. There were too many little things that were mentioned in that last chapter that seemed irrelevant to the story by the lack of detail that was given about them. I guess they just mostly seemed like they didn’t have a purpose, for example, the lady who came to speak to them in the tea room.